Part 3, Sections 21 - 30

The people, therefore, had good reason to place confidence in Cleisthenes. Accordingly,
now that he was the popular leader, three years after the expulsion of the tyrants, in the
archonship of Isagoras, his first step was to distribute the whole population into ten
tribes in place of the existing four, with the object of intermixing the members of the
different tribes, and so securing that more persons might have a share in the franchise.
From this arose the saying 'Do not look at the tribes', addressed to those who wished to
scrutinize the lists of the old families. Next he made the Council to consist of five
hundred members instead of four hundred, each tribe now contributing fifty, whereas
formerly each had sent a hundred. The reason why he did not organize the people into
twelve tribes was that he might not have to use the existing division into trittyes; for the
four tribes had twelve trittyes, so that he would not have achieved his object of
redistributing the population in fresh combinations. Further, he divided the country into
thirty groups of demes, ten from the districts about the city, ten from the coast, and ten
from the interior. These he called trittyes; and he assigned three of them by lot to each
tribe, in such a way that each should have one portion in each of these three localities.
All who lived in any given deme he declared fellow-demesmen, to the end that the new
citizens might not be exposed by the habitual use of family names, but that men might
be officially described by the names of their demes; and accordingly it is by the names
of their demes that the Athenians speak of one another. He also instituted Demarchs,
who had the same duties as the previously existing Naucrari,-the demes being made to
take the place of the naucraries. He gave names to the demes, some from the localities
to which they belonged, some from the persons who founded them, since some of the
areas no longer corresponded to localities possessing names. On the other hand he
allowed every one to retain his family and clan and religious rites according to ancestral
custom. The names given to the tribes were the ten which the Pythia appointed out of the
hundred selected national heroes.
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By these reforms the constitution became much more democratic than that of Solon.
The laws of Solon had been obliterated by disuse during the period of the tyranny, while
Cleisthenes substituted new ones with the object of securing the goodwill of the masses.
Among these was the law concerning ostracism. Four year after the establishment of this
system, in the archonship of Hermocreon, they first imposed upon the Council of Five
Hundred the oath which they take to the present day. Next they began to elect the
generals by tribes, one from each tribe, while the Polemarch was the commander of the
whole army. Then, eleven years later, in the archonship of Phaenippus they won the
battle of Marathon; and two years after this victory, when the people had now gained
self-confidence, they for the first time made use of the law of ostracism. This had
originally been passed as a precaution against men in high office, because Pisistratus
took advantage of his position as a popular leader and general to make himself tyrant;
and the first person ostracized was one of his relatives, Hipparchus son of Charmus, of
the deme of Collytus, the very person on whose account especially Cleisthenes had
enacted the law, as he wished to get rid of him. Hitherto, however, he had escaped; for
the Athenians, with the usual leniency of the democracy, allowed all the partisans of the
tyrants, who had not joined in their evil deeds in the time of the troubles to remain in the
city; and the chief and leader of these was Hipparchus. Then in the very next year, in the
archonship of Telesinus, they for the first time since the tyranny elected, tribe by tribe,
the nine Archons by lot out of the five hundred candidates selected by the demes, all the
earlier ones having been elected by vote; and in the same year Megacles son of
Hippocrates, of the deme of Alopece, was ostracized. Thus for three years they
continued to ostracize the friends of the tyrants, on whose account the law had been
passed; but in the following year they began to remove others as well, including any one
who seemed to be more powerful than was expedient. The first person unconnected with
the tyrants who was ostracized was Xanthippus son of Ariphron. Two years later, in the
archonship of Nicodemus, the mines of Maroneia were discovered, and the state made a
profit of a hundred talents from the working of them. Some persons advised the people to
make a distribution of the money among themselves, but this was prevented by
Themistocles. He refused to say on what he proposed to spend the money, but he bade
them lend it to the hundred richest men in Athens, one talent to each, and then, if the
manner in which it was employed pleased the people, the expenditure should be
charged to the state, but otherwise the state should receive the sum back from those to
whom it was lent. On these terms he received the money and with it he had a hundred
triremes built, each of the hundred individuals building one; and it was with these ships
that they fought the battle of Salamis against the barbarians. About this time Aristides the
son of Lysimachus was ostracized. Three years later, however, in the archonship of
Hypsichides, all the ostracized persons were recalled, on account of the advance of the
army of Xerxes; and it was laid down for the future that persons under sentence of
ostracism must live between Geraestus and Scyllaeum, on pain of losing their civic
rights irrevocably.
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So far, then, had the city progressed by this time, growing gradually with the growth of
the democracy; but after the Persian wars the Council of Areopagus once more
developed strength and assumed the control of the state. It did not acquire this
supremacy by virtue of any formal decree, but because it had been the cause of the
battle of Salamis being fought. When the generals were utterly at a loss how to meet the
crisis and made proclamation that every one should see to his own safety, the
Areopagus provided a donation of money, distributing eight drachmas to each member of
the ships' crews, and so prevailed on them to go on board. On these grounds people
bowed to its prestige; and during this period Athens was well administered. At this time
they devoted themselves to the prosecution of the war and were in high repute among
the Greeks, so that the command by sea was conferred upon them, in spite of the
opposition of the Lacedaemonians. The leaders of the people during this period were
Aristides, of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son of Lysimachus, and Themistocles, son
of Neocles, of whom the latter appeared to devote himself to the conduct of war, while the
former had the reputation of being a clever statesman and the most upright man of his
time. Accordingly the one was usually employed as general, the other as political
adviser. The rebuilding of the fortifications they conducted in combination, although they
were political opponents; but it was Aristides who, seizing the opportunity afforded by
the discredit brought upon the Lacedaemonians by Pausanias, guided the public policy
in the matter of the defection of the Ionian states from the alliance with Sparta. It follows
that it was he who made the first assessment of tribute from the various allied states,
two years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes; and it was he
who took the oath of offensive and defensive alliance with the Ionians, on which
occasion they cast the masses of iron into the sea.
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After this, seeing the state growing in confidence and much wealth accumulated, he
advised the people to lay hold of the leadership of the league, and to quit the country
districts and settle in the city. He pointed out to them that all would be able to gain a
living there, some by service in the army, others in the garrisons, others by taking a part
in public affairs; and in this way they would secure the leadership. This advice was
taken; and when the people had assumed the supreme control they proceeded to treat
their allies in a more imperious fashion, with the exception of the Chians, Lesbians, and
Samians. These they maintained to protect their empire, leaving their constitutions
untouched, and allowing them to retain whatever dominion they then possessed. They
also secured an ample maintenance for the mass of the population in the way which
Aristides had pointed out to them. Out of the proceeds of the tributes and the taxes and
the contributions of the allies more than twenty thousand persons were maintained.
There were 6,000 jurymen, 1,600 bowmen, 1,200 Knights, 500 members of the Council,
500 guards of the dockyards, besides fifty guards in the Acropolis. There were some 700
magistrates at home, and some 700 abroad. Further, when they subsequently went to
war, there were in addition 2,500 heavy-armed troops, twenty guard-ships, and other
ships which collected the tributes, with crews amounting to 2,000 men, selected by lot;
and besides these there were the persons maintained at the Prytaneum, and orphans,
and gaolers, since all these were supported by the state.
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Such was the way in which the people earned their livelihood. The supremacy of the
Areopagus lasted for about seventeen years after the Persian wars, although gradually
declining. But as the strength of the masses increased, Ephialtes, son of Sophonides, a
man with a reputation for incorruptibility and public virtue, who had become the leader of
the people, made an attack upon that Council. First of all he ruined many of its members
by bringing actions against them with reference to their administration. Then, in the
archonship of Conon, he stripped the Council of all the acquired prerogatives from which
it derived its guardianship of the constitution, and assigned some of them to the Council
of Five Hundred, and others to the Assembly and the law-courts. In this revolution he
was assisted by Themistocles, who was himself a member of the Areopagus, but was
expecting to be tried before it on a charge of treasonable dealings with Persia. This
made him anxious that it should be overthrown, and accordingly he warned Ephialtes
that the Council intended to arrest him, while at the same time he informed the
Areopagites that he would reveal to them certain persons who were conspiring to subvert
the constitution. He then conducted the representatives delegated by the Council to the
residence of Ephialtes, promising to show them the conspirators who assembled there,
and proceeded to converse with them in an earnest manner. Ephialtes, seeing this, was
seized with alarm and took refuge in suppliant guise at the altar. Every one was
astounded at the occurrence, and presently, when the Council of Five Hundred met,
Ephialtes and Themistocles together proceeded to denounce the Areopagus to them.
This they repeated in similar fashion in the Assembly, until they succeeded in depriving
it of its power. Not long afterwards, however, Ephialtes was assassinated by Aristodicus
of Tanagra. In this way was the Council of Areopagus deprived of its guardianship of the
state.
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After this revolution the administration of the state became more and more lax, in
consequence of the eager rivalry of candidates for popular favour. During this period the
moderate party, as it happened, had no real chief, their leader being Cimon son of
Miltiades, who was a comparatively young man, and had been late in entering public life;
and at the same time the general populace suffered great losses by war. The soldiers for
active service were selected at that time from the roll of citizens, and as the generals
were men of no military experience, who owed their position solely to their family
standing, it continually happened that some two or three thousand of the troops perished
on an expedition; and in this way the best men alike of the lower and the upper classes
were exhausted. Consequently in most matters of administration less heed was paid to
the laws than had formerly been the case. No alteration, however, was made in the
method of election of the nine Archons, except that five years after the death of Ephialtes
it was decided that the candidates to be submitted to the lot for that office might be
selected from the Zeugitae as well as from the higher classes. The first Archon from that
class was Mnesitheides. Up to this time all the Archons had been taken from the
Pentacosiomedimni and Knights, while the Zeugitae were confined to the ordinary
magistracies, save where an evasion of the law was overlooked. Four years later, in the
archonship of Lysicrates, thirty 'local justices', as they as they were called, were re-
established; and two years afterwards, in the archonship of Antidotus, consequence of
the great increase in the number of citizens, it was resolved, on the motion of Pericles,
that no one should admitted to the franchise who was not of citizen birth by both parents.
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After this Pericles came forward as popular leader, having first distinguished himself
while still a young man by prosecuting Cimon on the audit of his official accounts as
general. Under his auspices the constitution became still more democratic. He took away
some of the privileges of the Areopagus, and, above all, he turned the policy of the state
in the direction of sea power, which caused the masses to acquire confidence in
themselves and consequently to take the conduct of affairs more and more into their own
hands. Moreover, forty-eight years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of
Pythodorus, the Peloponnesian war broke out, during which the populace was shut up in
the city and became accustomed to gain its livelihood by military service, and so, partly
voluntarily and partly involuntarily, determined to assume the administration of the state
itself. Pericles was also the first to institute pay for service in the law-courts, as a bid for
popular favour to counterbalance the wealth of Cimon. The latter, having private
possessions on a regal scale, not only performed the regular public services
magnificently, but also maintained a large number of his fellow-demesmen. Any member
of the deme of Laciadae could go every day to Cimon's house and there receive a
reasonable provision; while his estate was guarded by no fences, so that any one who
liked might help himself to the fruit from it. Pericles' private property was quite unequal
to this magnificence and accordingly he took the advice of Damonides of Oia (who was
commonly supposed to be the person who prompted Pericles in most of his measures,
and was therefore subsequently ostracized), which was that, as he was beaten in the
matter of private possessions, he should make gifts to the people from their own
property; and accordingly he instituted pay for the members of the juries. Some critics
accuse him of thereby causing a deterioration in the character of the juries, since it was
always the common people who put themselves forward for selection as jurors, rather
than the men of better position. Moreover, bribery came into existence after this, the first
person to introduce it being Anytus, after his command at Pylos. He was prosecuted by
certain individuals on account of his loss of Pylos, but escaped by bribing the jury.
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So long, however, as Pericles was leader of the people, things went tolerably well with
the state; but when he was dead there was a great change for the worse. Then for the
first time did the people choose a leader who was of no reputation among men of good
standing, whereas up to this time such men had always been found as leaders of the
democracy. The first leader of the people, in the very beginning of things, was Solon,
and the second was Pisistratus, both of them men of birth and position. After the
overthrow of the tyrants there was Cleisthenes, a member of the house of the
Alcmeonidae; and he had no rival opposed to him after the expulsion of the party of
Isagoras. After this Xanthippus was the leader of the people, and Miltiades of the upper
class. Then came Themistocles and Aristides, and after them Ephialtes as leader of the
people, and Cimon son of Miltiades of the wealthier class. Pericles followed as leader of
the people, and Thucydides, who was connected by marriage with Cimon, of the
opposition. After the death of Pericles, Nicias, who subsequently fell in Sicily, appeared
as leader of the aristocracy, and Cleon son of Cleaenetus of the people. The latter
seems, more than any one else, to have been the cause of the corruption of the
democracy by his wild undertakings; and he was the first to use unseemly shouting and
coarse abuse on the Bema, and to harangue the people with his cloak girt up short about
him, whereas all his predecessors had spoken decently and in order. These were
succeeded by Theramenes son of Hagnon as leader of the one party, and the lyre-maker
Cleophon of the people. It was Cleophon who first granted the twoobol donation for the
theatrical performances, and for some time it continued to be given; but then Callicrates
of Paeania ousted him by promising to add a third obol to the sum. Both of these
persons were subsequently condemned to death; for the people, even if they are
deceived for a time, in the end generally come to detest those who have beguiled them
into any unworthy action. After Cleophon the popular leadership was occupied
successively by the men who chose to talk the biggest and pander the most to the tastes
of the majority, with their eyes fixed only on the interests of the moment. The best
statesmen at Athens, after those of early times, seem to have been Nicias, Thucydides,
and Theramenes. As to Nicias and Thucydides, nearly every one agrees that they were
not merely men of birth and character, but also statesmen, and that they ruled the state
with paternal care. On the merits of Theramenes opinion is divided, because it so
happened that in his time public affairs were in a very stormy state. But those who give
their opinion deliberately find him, not, as his critics falsely assert, overthrowing every
kind of constitution, but supporting every kind so long as it did not transgress laws; thus
showing that he was able, as every good citizen should be, to live under any form of
constitution, while he refused to countenance illegality and was its constant enemy.
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So long as the fortune of the war continued even, the Athenians preserved the
democracy; but after the disaster in Sicily, when the Lacedaemonians had gained the
upper hand through their alliance with the king of Persia, they were compelled to abolish
the democracy and establish in its place the constitution of the Four Hundred. The
speech recommending this course before the vote was made by Melobius, and the
motion was proposed by Pythodorus of Anaphlystus; but the real argument which
persuaded the majority was the belief that the king of Persia was more likely to form an
alliance with them if the constitution were on an oligarchical basis. The motion of
Pythodorus was to the following effect. The popular Assembly was to elect twenty
persons, over forty years of age, who, in conjunction with the existing ten members of
the Committee of Public Safety, after taking an oath that they would frame such
measures as they thought best for the state, should then prepare proposals for the
public. safety. In addition, any other person might make proposals, so that of all the
schemes before them the people might choose the best. Cleitophon concurred with the
motion of Pythodorus, but moved that the committee should also investigate the ancient
laws enacted by Cleisthenes when he created the democracy, in order that they might
have these too before them and so be in a position to decide wisely; his suggestion
being that the constitution of Cleisthenes was not really democratic, but closely akin to
that of Solon. When the committee was elected, their first proposal was that the Prytanes
should be compelled to put to the vote any motion that was offered on behalf of the
public safety. Next they abolished all indictments for illegal proposals, all
impeachments and pubic prosecutions, in order that every Athenian should be free to
give his counsel on the situation, if he chose; and they decreed that if any person
imposed a fine on any other for his acts in this respect, or prosecuted him or summoned
him before the courts, he should, on an information being laid against him, be summarily
arrested and brought before the generals, who should deliver him to the Eleven to be put
to death. After these preliminary measures, they drew up the constitution in the following
manner. The revenues of the state were not to be spent on any purpose except the war.
All magistrates should serve without remuneration for the period of the war, except the
nine Archons and the Prytanes for the time being, who should each receive three obols a
day. The whole of the rest of the administration was to be committed, for the period of the
war, to those Athenians who were most capable of serving the state personally or
pecuniarily, to the number of not less than five thousand. This body was to have full
powers, to the extent even of making treaties with whomsoever they willed; and ten
representatives, over forty years of age, were to be elected from each tribe to draw up
the list of the Five Thousand, after taking an oath on a full and perfect sacrifice.
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These were the recommendations of the committee; and when they had been ratified
the Five Thousand elected from their own number a hundred commissioners to draw up
the constitution. They, on their appointment, drew up and produced the following
recommendations. There should be a Council, holding office for a year, consisting of
men over thirty years of age, serving without pay. To this body should belong the
Generals, the nine Archons, the Amphictyonic Registrar (Hieromnemon), the Taxiarchs,
the Hipparchs, the Phylarch, the commanders of garrisons, the Treasurers of Athena and
the other gods, ten in number, the Hellenic Treasurers (Hellenotamiae), the Treasurers of
the other non-sacred moneys, to the number of twenty, the ten Commissioners of
Sacrifices (Hieropoei), and the ten Superintendents of the mysteries. All these were to be
appointed by the Council from a larger number of selected candidates, chosen from its
members for the time being. The other offices were all to be filled by lot, and not from the
members of the Council. The Hellenic Treasurers who actually administered the funds
should not sit with the Council. As regards the future, four Councils were to be created, of
men of the age already mentioned, and one of these was to be chosen by lot to take
office at once, while the others were to receive it in turn, in the order decided by the lot.
For this purpose the hundred commissioners were to distribute themselves and all the
rest as equally as possible into four parts, and cast lots for precedence, and the
selected body should hold office for a year. They were to administer that office as
seemed to them best, both with reference to the safe custody and due expenditure of the
finances, and generally with regard to all other matters to the best of their ability. If they
desired to take a larger number of persons into counsel, each member might call in one
assistant of his own choice, subject to the same qualification of age. The Council was to
sit once every five days, unless there was any special need for more frequent sittings.
The casting of the lot for the Council was to be held by the nine Archons; votes on
divisions were to be counted by five tellers chosen by lot from the members of the
Council, and of these one was to be selected by lot every day to act as president. These
five persons were to cast lots for precedence between the parties wishing to appear
before the Council, giving the first place to sacred matters, the second to heralds, the
third to embassies, and the fourth to all other subjects; but matters concerning the war
might be dealt with, on the motion of the generals, whenever there was need, without
balloting. Any member of the Council who did not enter the Council-house at the time
named should be fined a drachma for each day, unless he was away on leave of
absence from the Council.